R.I.P. Christopher Evan Welch

The actor died early Monday at a Santa Monica hospital after a sudden illness. Christopher Evan Welch had been in town shooting a regular role on HBO’s upcoming Mike Judge comedy Silicon Valley. He was 48. Welch had some three dozen film and TV credits, including the narrator in Woody Allen’s Vicky Christina Barcelona and a regular role on the AMC drama Rubicon. He also appeared in such features as Lincoln, Admission and Philip Seymour Hoffman starrers The Master and Synecdoche, New York. Welch’s TV work included episodes of Elementary, The Good Wife and Nurse Jackie and recurring on Law & Order. Welch also had roles on Broadway in Festen and revivals of The Crucible and London Assurance and Off-Broadway in plays including A Streetcar Named Desire, for which he won an Obie Award.

Welch was born on September 28, 1965, in Fort Belvoir, Va., and graduated from the University of Dallas. He went on to earn his master’s at the University of Washington and began his stage career in Seattle, where he also fronted a band called Ottoman Bigwigs.

Welch is survived his wife Emma (Roberts); daughter June Harper; his mother, Katherine Welch Burke; father, William Welch; brother Derek Welch; and sister McKenna Marx. Celebrations of his life are being planned in December for the Dallas area, where his parents and sister live, and late January in Manhattan. In lieu of flowers, an education fund is being established for his daughter. Donations may be sent to Emma Roberts Welch c/o The Law Offices of Michael W. Hubbard P.O. Box 180656 Dallas, TX 75218, or via paypal.com to Christopherevanwelchmemorial@yahoo.com.